Chapter Sixteen
Before I can react, Bakan tosses an oval gag device toward me; it floats into place, sealing my lips shut.
No!
Somehow, he found us. He’s dressed in a white suit of some kind; it strikes me as formal wear, though I think the nanites are responsible for that assumption. I suppose he couldn’t enter a sex palace in combat armor without raising a few eyebrows.
“Sorry, Miss Feyn,” he begins, holstering his weapons and shutting the door behind him. “I’m not going to hurt you, I promise, but I need to speak and you need to listen.”
I look down at Kest, who lies motionless on the floor.
“He’ll be fine, he’s only stunned,” says Bakan. “I’d never hurt one of my own kind. I’m not a monster.”
Yes, you are!
The gag breaks free of my lips and returns to one of Bakan’s suit pockets.
“Give me one good reason not to start screaming.”
Bakan sneers at me, then spits on the floor. “You humans are small-minded insects. Hurting you, killing you… You leap to the most obvious assumption, never slowing down to consider the bigger picture.”
I scowl back at him. “That’s not true,” I snarl.
Bakan grunts, smirking. “Haley, it’s the very reason you’re here. I wasn’t the one who plucked you from your primitive, decaying planet and whisked you in front of the Council. If not for Kest, I would be blissfully unaware of your existence. Even without Kest’s protective claim on you, harming you would be completely counterproductive to me.”
I try to pick apart his words, looking for obvious lies, but I can’t find any. Insults, sure.
“What do you want, asshole?”
Bakan grins. “I’m here to offer you some information Kest probably has not provided, and to make a proposition.”
“What is it?”
“I’ll get to that,” he says. He steps in closer and picks Kest up. As I watch, Bakan sets Kest down on the bed, making sure a pillow rests beneath his head. When he finishes, he stares at me intently, eyes crawling over my naked, bound body. Licking his lips, he folds his arms behind his back and steps away, giving me space.
“Haley, I admit that you’re a surprisingly beautiful specimen. If you were not claimed, I’d be tempted to take you every which way, but I’m a Dominar and a praetor, not some kind of human savage. I don’t take what isn’t mine.”
“Fuck you.”
Bakan retrieves from his pocket a small, round disc, like a hockey puck. He lifts it into the air, where it hovers and begins projecting a large, highly detailed hologram.
It starts off as a planet, one with dark oceans and tan continents; zooming in reveals sprawling cities of small buildings, like in undeveloped nations. Looking closer reveals sandy fields where humanoid beings toil under a hot sun, their skin tanned and leathery from exposure. There’s no advanced technology of any kind in sight.
“What’s this?” I ask.
“Vakhsa. A prison planet,” Bakan replies. “One of several used by the Dominars.”
“A what?”
He sighs, turning off the hologram. “Haley, if my people invade Earth and begin dictating terms, don’t you think there will be people who resist us?”
“Yeah…”
“There are thousands of humans who stand to lose out by our rule: oppressors, exploiters, hypocrites… the worst of humanity. They will be selected for exile, sent to live out their days scratching at the dirt for their survival.”
Maybe Bakan’s somehow messing with my nanites, because this doesn’t sound too terrible to me.
“Why not just put them in our own jails?”
Bakan’s eyes light up in surprise. “Good question, human. We send people to prison planets so that they can experience a life of powerlessness and unending struggle—the kind of life to which they condemned their fellow man without the slightest shred of remorse.”
Then it happens: I imagine Chadwick Thorpe on Vakhsa, far from his cushy office and assistants, forced to tend fields for bare subsistence… the idea is wickedly appealing. I have to push the fantasy from my mind. After weeks on Ohalessa, it’s hard to imagine a world as horrid and inhospitable as Vakhsa belonging to the Dominars. Yet, should I feel bad for wanting people like Thorpe sent to a prison planet? We put bad people in jail all the time on Earth. Thorpe tried to have me killed—is it wrong that I want him to pay?
“How do you feel about condemning your fellow humans to such misery?” Bakan asks, his voice taunting, full of invective—like he already knows my answer.
“If it’s just the worst humans,” I mumble. “The ones responsible for our planet’s problems…”
He laughs, a deep, hearty rumble. “You’re so naive, it almost hurts, Haley. If I thought humanity’s problems were caused by just a few bad apples, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. This is where Kest and I most strongly disagree. He thinks invading and making some changes will fix Earth, but I know better. Removing the troublemakers won’t be enough. New ones will take their place, and Earth’s problems will persist. When it does, the full human population will be vacated to planets like Vakhsa.”
Tears begin to trail down my cheeks and fall to the bed below. I look to Kest, wishing he’d wake up. “What would happen to Earth?”
“It will be reclaimed and most likely reseeded.”
How could Kest not have told me any of this? Was he trying not to scare me? Did he think I didn’t need to know? Or was he afraid of what I’d do if I knew?
“The people who get exiled… can they ever come back?” I ask. “Can they return once they’re…” I search for the word. “Rehabilitated?”
Bakan’s face falls in disappointment, then twists into anger. “Technically, yes,” he growls. “If the exiles can form a stable society, one that proves they’ve abandoned their destructive ways, they would be granted departure from the prison world.”
That’s something; there’d be hope, at least. “How long would it take?”
Bakan shakes his head. “That’s unknown. It’s never happened.”
“Never?”
Sighing, he approaches me slowly and reaches for my bonds. Working the knots free, he lets me down. My wrists ache, and I rub the imprints in my skin left by the ropes.
“All of our prison colonists have met the same fate: extinction. The same issues they had on their home world persist, and the extinction we sought to prevent happens anyway—probably because it was inevitable,” Bakan explains. “Humans are an inferior species, destined for self-destruction. That is why it is better to leave them with spears and rocks instead of atom bombs.”
I’ve had as much as I can stand from the praetor; with my hands free, I’m tempted to jump him, to make him feel some of the pain he’s caused me. And yet, I have no doubt that’s what he expects the human to do. Instead, I gather up the bed’s blanket and cover myself.
“I want you to leave, Bakan. Tell me your damn proposition so I can say no, and to fuck off.”
He smiles. “You’re not a coward, I’ll give you that, human.” He takes a seat next to me, and as he does Kest utters a mild groan. “Agent Kest sees that in you, and more. Considering his storied past, that’s a compliment even I won’t deny.”
“Get to the point,” I seethe, trying to scoot away.
“Fine. Haley Feyn, if my people invade Earth, humanity will eventually find itself exiled to a prison world, where it will devolve into anarchy and destruction. If we leave Earth alone, I expect the same will happen. Either way, you are doomed. However, if you think you can make a difference on Earth—if you can take what I’ve told you and get humanity to change—then I will give you transport back. All you have to do is show the Council how disgustingly human you can be.”
Holy shit.
“You want me to sabotage Kest.”
“Correct. In fact, when you return to Earth, you will have all the tools you’ll need to live like a queen. Your nanites can hack human computers with ease. Within minutes of your return, you could have a bank balance worth billions. You could destroy anyone who stands in your way, and live to a ripe old age in total comfort and security.”
He thinks I’m greedy and totally self-centered, I realize. He thinks all humans are.
“I could show my people what I’ve experienced, out here in space. They would see the danger, and work together to fix our world.”
Bakan laughs as he gets up. “You could try. I wouldn’t count on it working, but that’s just my opinion, and what do I know? I’ve only spent tens of thousands of years studying primitive civilizations.”
“Go fuck yourself, Bakan,” I snap.
“Please ask Kest to forgive my intrusion,” he says as he heads for the door. “And think about my offer, human. You won’t get a better one.”